Clues for Living a Long Healthy Life

At Midway Chiropractic, we are dedicated to helping our patients craft lives that are holistically healthy. Your well-being goes beyond back or neck pain, and we are committed to helping patients find routes toward health that include diet, exercise, rest, and social factors that promote and support a well-rounded life.

Researcher Dan Buettner, working for the National Geographic Society, has identified places on the planet where people live a long healthy life as Blue Zones. According to this New York Times article and summarized here, while the top-five places where people live longest and healthiest are remote and scattered, they have several things in common. Some of those commonalities include access to public health, a citizenry that fosters a cooperative spirit, healthy diet and exercise, social and psychological support, and these places also value its senior citizens, seeing their elderhood as valuable to the society as a whole.

The five places highlighted in this articleinclude Okinawa, Japan; Sardinia, Italy; Loma Linda, California, USA; Nicoya, Costa Rica; and Ikaria, Greece. With a summary and hints about each location’s longevity and happiness, a common thread includes social cohesion, exercise, leisure time, and a healthy diet. It is also noted, however, that an increased diet of sugar and processed foods is beginning to infiltrate these areas, and other places worldwide, and the effect of this sugarization of the diet is being felt. The long-term impact of these changing diets is yet to be seen.

For further information about Dan Buettner’s study on Blue Zones, see this website, which outlines resources and details about lifestyles within the blue zones and ways that those of use living outside those blue zones can emulate the patterns and habits that are creating long, healthy lives for those living within them.